Cuban leader Fidel Castro is in serious condition after complications following three failed operations on his large intestine for diverticulitis, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported Monday.

Castro suffered an infection that worsened to peritonitis, the newspaper's Tuesday edition said, citing two medical sources at the Madrid hospital where a surgeon who visited Castro in December works. The report was posted on the newspaper's Web site.

Despite its seeming immediacy, the El Pais report may shed no new light on Castro's current condition.

Sources told NBC News on Monday that the El Pais article was not based on new information, but on information from the Spanish surgeon who examined Castro in December.

OK, it is time to start talking about post-Castro Cuba. When he dies, what will be the US response? What should it be?

Wouldn't it be good if the US already has a quick response planned and ready to go, something about immediately talking about a new policy? Wouldn't it be great if all the Cubans living in the US who want to go back could, and infect the island with a freedom-experienced mindset?

I think we should immediately normalize relations. Obviously the embargo has accomplished nothing and we have a much better chance of winning them over with financial incentives than by continuing to pretend they don't exist. Let Raoul remain as the figurehead but start a program of capitalism from the bottom up.

It is not obvious that the embargo accomplished nothing. Consider what Cuba could be had there been no embargo. Thanks to our "friends" around the world that colluded with Castro, the embargo was not as effective as it could have been.

Cubans want freedom. Almost all of them are waiting for Castro to die. In recent years, they knew that there was no sense in fighting the police state when Castro was going to die soon anyway. The aftermath of his death will be very interesting.

Just as long as that airhead JIMMY CARTER dont ask us to fly old glory at half-mast when the grim reaper comes to claim him we will never fly our falg at half-mast for any tyrant despot and commie dirt bag

The intestinal disease Fidel Castro is said to he suffering from is usually easy to treat - but if complications develop in an elderly patient it becomes a death sentence. Ironic that Castro should die from the incompetence of the Socialist medical miracle in Cuba. After three bungled operations he was sent to Spain to die a slow, agonizingly painful death (I hope).